


where have those hands been?

by discranola



Series: every copy of hunt down the freeman is personalized [2]
Category: Half-Life, Hunt Down The Freeman (Video Game)
Genre: Adam being Adam, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Mitchell Shephard Has A Bad Time, Not Beta Read, Reality Bending, Video Game Mechanics, adam can use console commands because hes fucked up, i have many emotions around mitchell, nick and colonel cue are mentioned but not here, not the same mitchell as the previous story, teen for swearing and a single punch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:14:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25268179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discranola/pseuds/discranola
Summary: Adam gets bored waiting for Mitch to come back and messes with console commands.
Series: every copy of hunt down the freeman is personalized [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828873
Kudos: 11





	where have those hands been?

**Author's Note:**

> what the fuck? another one? this one was fun to write because its from adams pov, and adam is a dickhead. also, this was written at 4-5am, so theres probably LOTS of mistakes im missing. may or may not be fixed at a later date if they do exist
> 
> for stories sake, the 'real' mitchell is mostly referred to as "mitch" while the other one is called "mitchell". i will probably mess up a lot on that

Adam sighed as he looked at the spawn menu for the 50th time that evening. Waiting for Mitch to come back, or at least close the game for real, was getting tiring. Had he fallen asleep on his keyboard...? Now that he thought of it, it might have been about 5AM for him right now. 

Mitch's player model had completely disappeared from the game around two hours ago, and yet the game's graphics slowly fading and unloading didn't follow instantly. In fact, it didn't follow at all. Nick and a few of the more competently-programmed NPCs started to question where Mitch had disappeared to, so Adam just unloaded them (he... really hoped that wouldn't cause issues later).

Which in the end was proving to be a mistake, because now he was hopelessly bored and alone. He entertained the idea of adding Nick back in, but he _really_ didn't want to explain why the two were suddenly completely alone in a ruined building. 

He spawned in a few simple NPCs that he knew wouldn't cause any issues, but them _not_ causing issues made it boring. The few military he made mostly stood in place and moved back when Adam got near them, and the Combine's fucked up monsters kept butting him with their pulse rifles until he got sick of it and lit them on fire. 

He was going through the spawn list alphabetically now out of pure boredom. He’d produced about a dozen headcrabs to see if any of them could at least _attempt_ to turn him into a zombie (it sounded funny at the time) before he realised that would most likely mean turning off god-mode and gave up. 

“Maybe I can use that quit command.” Adam mumbled to himself. The game shutting down was _far_ from fun, but neither was being completely alone (although he would admit that was his fault). Occasional flashing images and loud noises followed by an eternity of nothing but black was at least slightly more entertaining than Alex (he had _no_ idea who he was, he just spawned him) shouting ‘Hello, Captain!’ at him every five seconds.

He sighed as he started mindlessly scrolling through more things to create. Mostly weapons and props, it seemed. The weapons one would at least be fun if he could hold a mini-gun at Nick’s face and watch him freak out, but Nick wasn’t there (yet again, his fault). 

Wait.

Adam slowly blinked and rubbed at his eyes before inching his face uncomfortably close to the spawn menu.

_NPC_Mitchell_

What…?

Why would Mitch have an NPC file? He was the player character. Maybe it was a cut feature or something? Dammit, now he was curious. 

Ignoring his earlier concerns with spawning important characters, Adam started to focus.

_NPC_Create NPC_Mitchell_

Oh, that crackling noise was almost certainly _not_ good. Before Adam could even reconsider trying to memorise what the despawn command was to fix his mess, the lights in the dingy hallway were already flickering.

And then, there he was. Well, he certainly looked different.

_This_ Mitchell wasn’t rocking his Mitch’s over-the-top video-game protagonist hairstyle, for one thing. The scars on his face seemed to have healed nicely too, _and_ he was wearing a very important looking uniform.

Adam squinted. He hadn’t looked _too_ far into the files yet, but he was pretty sure this was an older, sadder version of Mitch. Maybe about a decade later, if he had to guess, or maybe Nick’s bitching had made him start prematurely greying. 

Suddenly, Mitchell’s pose broke and his eyes snapped open.

Oh, that was most certainly _not_ good. Adam was pretty sure people were supposed to have eye textures instead of featureless white orbs. 

Mitchell looked at him (or, well, he thought he did, it was pretty hard to tell) and his face froze in an expression that would have been pretty comical if Adam wasn’t currently freaking the fuck out.

“Adam?” Mitchell’s mouth opened in a horrible, stilted looking way. 

Adam tried not to let his awkward smile turn into a grimace. “Hey, Mitch. You look a little different.”

The two stood looking at each other for what felt like an eternity before Mitchell’s expression contorted into something that was _definitely_ not friendly. 

“Huh? So tell me. What about the army? Colonel. Nick and Brad. Why should I trust you? You killed. Back-stab. How did you get out, Adam?”

Despite the unnerving situation (which was only getting worse, in Adam’s opinion), he had to stop himself from laughing. Oh, _this_ absolutely wasn’t the Mitchell he knew. Not to mention the odd way he talked. Absolutely nothing sounded natural, it was like someone was behind him clacking away at a soundboard.

...It was a _little_ more concerning that this Mitchell seemed to know who the man in the HEV suit was. He was pretty sure even his Mitch didn’t know who that was, even if he had his suspicions. 

“Nick’s fine. Don’t worry.” Adam waved his hand, avoiding the obvious question in the room. “Same with Cue and Brad. They’re a little busy at the moment.” 

Mitchell’s face somehow got even _more_ aggressive, although it had a slightly more mocking tone now. “I’m fine. Thanks.” He paused to look around the room. “What the hell is going on?”

Oh, now that was a harder question to answer. Adam was pretty sure he was the only one… aware of the situation. He couldn’t exactly tell this man he just (technically) met ‘well, I used my fucked up and evil powers to make you exist’. Didn’t sound much like a good conversation starter. Oh, right. He was supposed to be the vague, annoying character. Got it. Time to get in character.

“I don’t know, Mitch. You tell me. I’m about as confused as you are.” At least he wasn’t lying about that. Mitchell’s fists balled.

“Tell me. Adam.”

Well, if Adam’s theory was correct, and this was a broken, unused NPC, it wouldn’t hurt to tell him the truth. He’d just get rid of him later.

“Well, I got kind of bored waiting for the _real_ Mitch to come back. I saw you in the console and thought you looked interesting. Sorry about the face, I think that scene was pre-rendered.” _Too far?_

Before Adam could even place his signature smirk upon his face, his head was already being slammed back into a tile wall by a gloved fist. _Too far._ He was sure if he didn’t have the God command on that would've _stung_.

“You killed your own people! Why? I will fucking _kill_ you!” 

When Adam looked up again, Mitchell’s free hand was waving wildly in the air while his other clamped his jaw shut. So, that speech impediment was definitely an issue. Adam had a feeling he’d have to check the cutscene files after this encounter.

...He really, really hopes he didn’t break something in the game. 

Mitchell started to pace, both his hands moving around now as he spat out random phrases in orders that made no sense, with Adam’s name in different tones occasionally added in. 

Well, better late then never, Adam supposed.

_ENT_Remove NPC_Mitchell_

As the NPC began to twist and glitch away into the void, his previously angry expression morphed into shock before his model finally blipped out of existence.

Adam let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding and slumped against the wall.

He thinks he’d make a good bug tester if he was real.

**Author's Note:**

> Something is causing script errors.


End file.
